“Karen says if you eat too much you get flat,” Kaylee said to me the other day.

I really wonder what’s going on in Kaylee’s head when she hears a statement like that. Is she imagining eating a bunch of food and magically flattening into a Kaylee-shaped piece of paper, capable of sliding under doors? In that case, maybe she thinks becoming flat sounds pretty awesome.

Can we wait a little longer before I have to worry about other people promoting an unrealistic body image for my child? Can we wait a little longer before she starts thinking she needs to be stick-thin to be accepted? Can we wait a little longer before my underweight child starts watching her figure?

I kind of want to rant now about the society we live in that values beauty over substance, and about the indoctrination of children into a cult of superficial bullshit that turns them into judgmental little bullies.

But I just … I just can’t today. I don’t have the energy to pull all that frustration into a coherent blog post.

Instead I’ll take a deep breath and remind Kaylee that she’s beautiful, no matter what. And then I’ll try to get her to eat another chicken nugget. (And some vegetables. Sheesh, calm down.)